The federal high court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of 431 mobile phones allegedly recovered from Chinese nationals to the federal government.
Dehinde Dipeolu, the trial judge, on Tuesday, granted the
final forfeiture application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) after hearing the arguments of Hanatu Kofarnaisa, counsel for
the anti-graft agency.
BACK STORY
In December 2024, the EFCC arrested 792 suspects at a
seven-storey building in Victoria Island, Lagos over allegations of operating
cryptocurrency and romance scam networks.
The suspects included 114 Chinese nationals, 40 Filipinos,
two Kazakh nationals, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian.
The anti-graft agency said the foreigners were using the
building to “train Nigerians on how to initiate romance and investment scams”.
Some of the foreign nationals were later convicted of the
offences, while their properties, including digital assets worth $222,729 in
USDT, were forfeited to the federal government.
Items previously forfeited in the case include 194 routers;
205 sofas; 501 double-step bunks; 754 mattresses; 40 refrigerators; 10
microwaves; two whiteboards; 16 inverter batteries; 14 inverters; 43
CPUs/monitors; a ring light; two fuel tanks; a transformer; seven vehicles; 411
deep freezers; 13 electric kettles; 21 UPS units; a toaster; an air fryer; 558
office tables; two television sets; a network server; six gas cylinders; a
blender; three weighing scales; a spiral dough mixer; two double-burner stoves;
and a dining set.
Other items are 1,596 computers/laptops; 4,091 mobile
phones; 350 foreign SIM cards, and 3,399 Nigerian SIM cards of various
telecommunications providers (1,122 MTN SIM cards, 316 9mobile SIM cards, 1,277
Airtel SIM cards, and 684 Glo SIM cards).
TUESDAY’S FORFEITURE PROCEEDINGS
In July 2026, the EFCC approached the court for an interim
forfeiture order over 431 additional mobile phones allegedly linked to the
suspects and believed to have been used to perpetrate fraudulent activities.
The court granted the interim forfeiture order and directed
the EFCC to publish it in a national newspaper to enable any person interested
in the property to appear before the court and show cause why the interim order
should not be made final.
During court proceedings on Tuesday, EFCC counsel said the
agency had published the interim order in The Guardian newspaper of August 11,
2026.
Kofarnaisa told the court that the EFCC had satisfied the
statutory requirements for final forfeiture and asked the court to grant the
applicatio in the interest of justice.
After hearing the application, the judge granted the request
and ordered the final forfeiture of the 431 mobile phones to the federal
government.
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